Quality Control in Clinical Laboratories

Abstract

Quality control (QC) in clinical trials means the procedures which insure protection of human subjects from research risk, reliability of the data, and thereby assures internal consistency. This has been developed since 1970s in the US, by establishing various regulations which are now called GCP. From the viewpoint of total QC, it should be emphasized that rigorous review of protocol by the Institutional Review Board and obtaining Informed Consent are prerequisites for insuring the quality of the given trial at high scientific level. When pursuing a clinical trial, first of all, facilities of the institutions and the ability of investigators must be of high quality. For this reason, at each institution previous data related to trials should be thoroughly reviewed and analyzed prior to developing a protocol. Educational courses in QC in clinical practice are invaluable. QC of diagnosis means, for example, central pathology review and standardization of diagnostic procedures and process. Secondly, at each institution, data managers collect the data and submit them to the central office at the indicated time. In order to evolve clinical trial, continuous education for data managers and expansion of their job are encouraged. Thirdly, at the statistical center independent from the research group office, subject-specific data managers, the biostatistical staff, must check submitted forms for completeness, consistency and accuracy. Finally, at the data analysis, quality evaluation of the research should also be carried out. Throughout the trial, monitoring and audit are particularly important to assure quality. The sponsor has the responsibility of monitoring the trial and make rigorous onsite visits, and the individual study group also have a monitoring program, while the FDA and the NCI audit by themselves. The purpose of audit is not only to assure data reliability but also to check out patient compliance to drug, education as to regulations and rules of clinical trials and the analysis of violations so as to provide suggestions to improve medical care.